Mentor Matters

Tell me and I forget, teach me and I may remember, involve me and I learn. ­– Benjamin Franklin

 The first step for every aspect of human learning is imitation. A child imitates how her parents walk, talk, laugh, play, and even fight. If there are insults flying around at home you can be sure that the child will adopt them as fast as she can. If you want to make quick progress in any field, learn to imitate.

Now, many proclaim themselves leaders in various fields but have never been mentored by someone that has gone before them. The day Novak Djokovic lost his place as tennis world number one to Rafael Nadal, he gave Boris Becker, one-time youngest ever player to win the Wimbledon Open, a call to become his trainer. He did this because he knew that to regain his top rank in world tennis he needed someone who has been there and done that.

Mentorship is a pattern for would-be champions. A mentor should be someone who would not only show you the what but also the how to achieve what you desire to achieve. In effect, that means that he or she must be a person who has done what you are trying to do in detail. Age, gender, ethnicity, and the like, may not matter when choosing a mentor. What matters is whether or not the mentor knows his or her "onions" in that area.

In choosing a mentor, there are three things that should not be ignored. The first is prior record of the possible mentor. What has the person achieved in the field? How much learning has he in it? There are times when you learn from people that have failed in the area you want to succeed in but that does not amount to mentorship. For an effective mentor-protégé relationship, you need someone who has actually succeeded in it. At the least your mentor must be someone who may have failed in an aspect of the area but have overcome his failure enough to allow for proper mentorship.

I addition, you must understand and accept your would-be mentor’s value system. You must be bold to get answers to questions like; what does she believe? What makes him compromise? Does she understand the full purpose of why she is alive? This is important. A mentor-protégé relationship does not only transfer actions and principles but the very life of the mentor gets into the protégé.

Finally, your would-be mentor must be willing to teach. You cannot learn effectively from a secretive teacher. Your mentor must be willing to show you all that you need to learn for you to succeed.

Goal Formulation: DEFINING PURPOSE

What have I done now? Is there not a cause? - David (In the battle with Goliath)

In the pursuit of any goal it is of utmost importance that you define clearly to yourself what the purpose of your goal is. Why do you want to achieve the goal? Is it to gain more relevance, or more money, or more skill? Is it to be the best in your field and leave a name for yourself or to push the work of God’s kingdom one mile further? I am not here to tell you if your purpose is right or wrong (when you define it you will tell that to yourself). What matters to me is that you define the purpose no matter what else you do.

Definition of purpose is one of the most important steps in goal achievement, the lack of which leads a thousand goals to the drains. This is so because you will be confronted with the question, “Why?” a thousand times over, and in different forms.

The young man David was confronted and rebuked by his brother while considering the unrealistic duel with the giant Goliath. Ordinarily this opposition should make David stop his enquiry but he asked: “What have I done now? Is there not a cause?” This was David’s energy source. It was his greatest motivating factor. He did not just feel like fighting a giant man-killing machine, he was acting based on the purpose that won’t leave him no matter how hard he tries.

People will confront you and show you splendid reasons why you should abandon ship. Situations will compel you and place your finger next to the “Abort Mission” button. Your parents, siblings, or even I may not believe in your cause. But if that goal is borne out of burden and you have sought God for direction, all you need to keep you on track is defining – in very clear terms – why you are doing  what you are doing and the sky will be but a starting point for you.

Thought Line on Success

I know the thoughts i think toward you ... thoughts of good and not of evil. - God

I often pride myself with the following tagline: “I am a writer.” By this I mean I write or something like that). There were many times I make this statement and pray my audience don’t get bold enough to ask what I have written. A friend once told me, “Leinge, a writer writes.” Well that went a long way in sinking into my mind that he intended to say, “Leinge, you are not a writer!”

I have learned that public opinion is very important. It is just not as important as personal opinion. A songwriter said of Joseph, “Until his (Joseph’s) opinion of his future became a reality, God tested him.” Joseph’s family’s opinion was not near as important as his own and the opinion that God would have of him after he tests him. Successes listen to understand public opinion of them but they do not meditate on them until they become crippled by external opinions that have become internalized.

It is fun to say you are something. We hear, “I am an Engineer,” “I am a Pastor,” “I am great person (as though that were a goal),” daily, but the problem really comes to bear when we try to actually be “Engineers,” or “Pastors,” or “Great persons”. This is where the cliché, “Talk is cheap,” applies. Luke (M.D.) wrote a letter to his friend Theophilus, and he said, “I once wrote to you about the things Jesus began to do and to teach.” Notably, doing came before teaching because it is important, indeed more potent, to proclaim what you do.

Young folks should learn to begin small. My pastor, Chris Olamor, once said, “God never starts small things in a big way but rather starts big things in a small way.” How true! Zachariah (a prophet) once noted, “Do not look down on small beginnings, for the Lord rejoices to see the work begin, to see the plume line in [your] hand.” So you want to be an actor, or a singer or a movie director, or a writer, or a doctor? Begin! Start! Do something – anything – that etches you closer to your goal! It is far better to do it wrongly than not do it at all.

Finally when you get yourself to start something, do not stop. Keep at it. You will get tired – possibly as tired as I get posting daily in my blog – but do not stop. It is in stopping for a rest that you fail.

You Are Entitled to Nothing!

Laban: Name your wages and I will pay them.

Jacob: Don’t give me anything

A few days ago I asked a friend if he ever looked back at our childhood days longingly missing them. I asked because I sometimes look back and miss the days that I didn't need to care where the last meal I ate came from or how it came. I miss the days that my clothes were not a concern – in those days nothing really was a concern.

Though I miss those days, I have enough sense to know that they will never return. I will never experience those days because they are gone. It is OK, even gracious, to experience and enjoy the days when everything was done for you by someone else. The first type of relationship we all had was a dependent one – we depended on someone else to live. The problem comes when your dependency graduates into expecting that people must fulfill some imaginary obligations in your life.

I hear young adults sometimes hang their mediocrity and stagnancy on what some people did or did not do for them. You hear statements like, “If my father had provided enough money I would have…” or, “It is not my fault. I am where I am because they failed me.” These type of statements presupposes that people other than you have some responsibility to fulfill in your life. In a way they mean they are entitled to serve you. Nothing has kept people bound and incapable from becoming all they can become like this thought line.

It is good you get this firmly established in your heart – YOU ARE ENTITLED TO NOTHING! Nobody owes you anything. Nobody has to give or offer you any help. In your success journey you are responsible for yourself and, in effect, you are on your own.

Do not get me wrong, you need people to succeed, and, you will get people to help you succeed. What you should not have is the attitude that says: “I am entitled to help and without it I will fail”. When people choose to help you (as they certainly will), let it be the exception and not the rule of your success journey. 

Marvelous Pain

Pain is temporary. Quitting lasts forever. - Lance Armstrong 

It is normal, almost natural, for folks to cringe away from whatever causes them pain. Pain killers and related analgesics are probably the most widely used drugs in the world. We numb ourselves with sex, alcohol, narcotics and noise in frantic measures directed at preventing the experience of pain. But then pain can be a good, indeed great, thing to have in every area of life.

Imagine for a moment life without the sense of pain. You would put your hands in fire and burn to death without realizing what was happening. Pain then serves as our warning of things gone bad and gives us the opportunity to take a different path or course of action. Madeleine L’Engle in her book, A Stone For a Pillow, wrote: 

The most terrible thing to happen to a leper is the loss of pain. The hands and feet of the leper become useless stumps not because of leprosy, but because the leper feels no pain. If the leper loses fingers or toes, as so often happens, it is not because of the disease itself, but because the leper is not warned by pain that the fingers and toes are being hurt, and therefore damage or infection are not prevented. Pain is an angel to tell us that something is wrong. The body which cannot feel pain suffers terrible and often fatal injury.

In our success journey, we need the feeling of pain all too well to tell us when things are not going according to plan. Pain in this case serves as our inner warning system and we are able to take redress.

The pain will come in various ways. It may be in lost deals, or attainment of non-relevant things, or exhaustion, or depression. Whatever way it presents itself, identify it and take proper actions to address whatever the cause may be. Do not numb your senses with pain killers such as turning a blind eye to it or stubbornly continuing on your journey because that may mean, like the leper, losing far more than you bargained for. 

To survive gallantly the pain phase it is important that you know that pain is, more often than not, a temporary experience and will fade away if you act in a decisive way to curb its cause.

Positive Influence: an ingredient for certain success.

I hold that a strongly marked personality can influence descendants for generations. - Beatrix Potter (Author)

Success is desired by virtually everyone that has some sense. Every person I have met wants to succeed – even if they have not defined the areas they want to succeed in. This desire to excel is a universal denominator that transcends gender, age, social status or knowledge.

Success though is best achieved when it involves people. The point in which you can begin to consider yourself successful is the point in which you have succeeded with people. This is so because people, not things, make the world worth living in.

A positive influence on people is a very important ingredient in the success recipe. Some people in their pursuit of success fall back on intimidation, fear, or manipulation to get people to respond to them. These factors though may have an appearance of producing the desired outcomes, are very negative. You cannot boast success with people until your influence releases positive energy.

You begin to influence people positively when you learn to listen to understand and listen empathically to them. Folks generally seek for people they can share their lives with. You must desire to understand them by listening intentionally and carefully. Do not interrupt. Do not proffer immediate solutions. Just listen. In addition, your listening must be with empathy. Folks sense when you are listening out of a sense of obligation and without emotion. If you do that you can be sure you have lost the person.

It is said that people do not care how much you know until they know how much you care. You can have no positive influence on folks that you care little about. If you would have people submit willingly to your influence you would have to care genuinely over what concerns them.

You will achieve every goal of yours if you would help others achieve theirs. This is a principle of achievement that is worth abiding by. When you make the achievement of other peoples goals your priority, all you need to fulfill yours will fall in place.

Excellence

If a man is called to be a street sweeper, he should sweep streets even as Michelangelo painted, or Beethoven composed music, or Shakespeare wrote poetry. He should sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will pause and say, "Here lived a great street sweeper who did his job well." - Martin Luther King (jnr)

 How much boast can you make about your works? Can you boldly speak about the works of your hands and demand they speak for themselves? Can you append your name on your work if you knew it would be placed side-by-side with the best in your field?

If you would be tremendously successful you must have a spirit of excellence. This spirit will give you the boast for your work anywhere in the world because it dots the “i’s” and crosses the “t’s”. Noah had this spirit and so we read of him that, “Noah did everything exactly as God commanded him.” To develop the spirit of excellence, consider the following:

Make every work a masterpiece. It is important you take every work you do as an extension of your life. People considering your works are not merely meeting a piece of work but are meeting you; what first impressions are you leaving?  If you have this in mind you will handle each task as a masterpiece work of art set with intent for the audience.

Develop skill. It is also important you develop skill in every detail of your works. The archaic definition of the word skill means to “make a difference”. In view of this, decide to make a difference in every area of your works. There is always something else you can do to improve your work. You do not need to do it the same way you have done it before neither do you have to do it the way others do it.

Learn from others. It is important to keep an ever- learning attitude in all you do. Don’t get to the point that you feel you know it all. If your heart is open there is always something you can learn from just about everyone.

Innovate. Innovation is the icing on creativity. It means to effect a change. Do not strive endlessly trying to do something nobody has done before. Simply change what has been, making it better.

Excellence is reserved for a select few – follow this and you will be one of them. 

Identifying God's Help in Your Success Jouney

Be strong. Take courage. Don't be intimidated. don't give... [it] a second thought, because GOD, your GOD, is striding ahead of you. He is right there with you. He won't let you down; he won't leave you. - Moses (The Prophet)

I read a story of an old man who lived by a river. In the rainy season the rains were heavy, and the river rose. The Police Chief came by in his jeep, and said to the old man, “The river is going to flood, and I want to evacuate you.”

The old man folded his arm confidently, “I have faith in God. God will take care of me.”

The Police Chief shook his head and drove off.

The river continued to rise. It lapped about the old man’s house, rising up to the entrance. The Police Chief came by in a canoe, and said, “The river is continuing to rise. I really need to evacuate you.”

The old man looked at the river which covered his steps and lapped across the entrance. He folded his arms. “I have faith in God. God will take care of me.”

The Police Chief shook his head and rowed away.

And the river inched higher. At last the old man was clinging to his roof. The Police Chief came by in a helicopter and hovered above the man. “I really must evacuate you. You’ll drown if I don’t.”

But the old man repeated, “I have faith in God. God will take care of me.”

Frustrated, the Police Chief left.

And the river rose even higher. And the old man drowned.

In heaven, he was very upset. He went to God and said, “Why did you do this to me? Why did you let me drown? I kept telling the Police Chief that I had faith in you, and that you will take care of me.”

God said, “You ninny! I sent you a jeep, and a canoe, and a helicopter!”

When we ask God for help, we can’t insist that help come in the way that we have decided. Some things to note about God’s help are:

1. They will come through people. Do not look far when seeking God’s help. He will lead people to you to help you accomplish your worthy goals. Do not isolate yourself from people because they are an extension of God’s hands.

2. They will not contradict the Bible. The help that will come to you will not stand against God’s word for ethical living. People that will offer immoral or unethical help are not an extension of God’s hands.

The Question of Purpose

He who has a why to live for can bear almost any how. - Friedrich Nietzsche

For every worthy venture there come questions that challenge its efficacy. These questions come through various means. They primarily will flood your mind, debating every decision and plan you have. They will also come through people – loved ones and the like – would challenge every phase of every venture. Finally through the project itself – debates of whether you are achieving as you planned. These questions are of several forms and getting an answer for them, rather than running away from them, would go a long way in ensuring that the venture is a success.

The first question is that of PURPOSE. You will be asked to what purpose you are pursuing your dream. This question and its answer, or answers as the case may be, is of utmost importance. Why are you doing what you are doing? Why are you trying to achieve what you are trying to achieve? Why are you not doing something else with your time? Why have you chosen this time and this location to pursue this venture?

Many young folks don’t bother to consider the various “whys” of their pursuits and so falter and fail seemingly without reason. Myles Munroe famously stated that, “If the purpose of a thing is not known abuse is inevitable.” This is true in every venture of life. When you consider the “whys” you will get deep in thought and expand your idea beyond its possible shallow stand.

In addition, the answers to the questions you ask will unlock many angles of what you really need to do. For example, if a student asks himself why he is in school, he may come up with the answer, “To get a good paying job.” Further questioning of why he may want a good paying job may get the answer, “To help my parents with finances.” At this point he is discerning a purpose for his studies. From this point he may switch questioning to. “How then can I get good grades?”

The question of purpose should not make you give up. It should not make you abandon ship. Though unnerving, it should make you succeed in your venture. Every young folk should adopt the question of purpose in approaching every project.

Setting Up Your Team: (How to Make YOU a Team Player)

The strength of the team is each individual member. the strength of each member is the team. - Phil Jackson (Author)

It is sometimes easy to get into thinking the success and failure of a team is all-dependent on the team members other than you. In essence what that means is that you may think that you have attained to the state that the team needs but others need to grow. This is never true. You are a team player too and must play according to the set rules of the team. here is how you can be the right team player. 

Admit your need for help: I generally assume, correctly or otherwise, that the fact that I often look small as compared to my vision is my mind telling me that I need help. Not many people like to admit their inadequacies, interpreting it as weakness. Nothing can be further from the truth. There is strength in vulnerability and the radiance of this strength is often exposed when you let it be influenced by other people in a team.

Make “you” desirable: in team play, the people involved work with each other and not for each other. People do not want to work with an undesirable team head and team players. Make yourself someone people want to be around. Cut anything that limits your ability to get people around you involved with you. Search for things about you that make people draw close to you. Focus all your energy on bringing out these traits.

Look out for like-minds: the whole idea of teamwork is bringing your visions to fruition with the help of others. You need people that can think in line with your visions. There are people I do not dare tell a word about what my visions are all about. There are people on the other hand that I literally search for so I can share my next project with them. The difference between these two classes of people is the fact that one party kills the dream and the other party builds it.

Seek fun-people: do not work with people who show signs of disinterest in your vision or who will not derive pleasure in the process of accomplishing the vision. Everybody you are to form a team with should enjoy the process from start to finish. Success comes faster if everybody derives pleasure from the work. Failure or the inability to reach your goal also is easier to take and more easily seen as temporary if such people are on board with you. 

Setting Up Your Team: (Performance Goals)

I will now write on the unifying factor of performance goals. Goals are the life of team play because they are the aim, the “something” that teams want to achieve in a specified period.

          The unifying factor of performance goals: A performance goal is a goal that specifies the performance required of a team. If this is lacking, progress cannot be measured and if progress is not measured, there is no way the team can say if it is successful or not. So every team needs to set goals to help move it forward. Here are some ways to set performance goals-

       
  Write it down in clear terms. Any performance goal that is not written down is no goal at all. Make sure your performance goal is written in specific, clear, unambiguous terms so every team player can understand and agree without much effort. Many times folks think they understand a thing only to see it in written form and discover the contrary is the case.

-                         Set a time target. All performance goals must have a time tag. Any goal without a time tag is a mere wish. “The vision will …happen at the appointed time. It hurries toward its goal. It won't be a lie. …wait for it. It will certainly happen.” A time tag pushes team players. With a time tag, each player knows that he or she does not have all day.

-                    Plan. Plan what the process will be for your team to reach its target. A plan is a sequential list of activities outlined with high-priority actions coming first. A plan is actually the map you and your team will follow to reach your destination. What decisions and actions should come before others? Outline them all in your plan and follow them.

-                         Review often. A team’s performance goals should be reviewed as often as possible. This makes room for changes that may arise in the course of time. This means the team players have to be versatile enough to accommodate these changes. It is worthy to note that every review should be approved by each team player before it is adopted. You do not want a situation where some team players are ready to move while some others stand back and watch.

Setting Up Your Team: (Common Purpose and Mutual Accountability)

A body of men holding themselves accountable to nobody ought not to be trusted by anybody. - Thomas Paine (Author)

If you have followed the articles on teamwork then you should have started considering how best to put your team in place. Today I shall discuss two other unifying factors. Without these unifying factors every team eventually goes to disarray.

The unifying factor of common purpose: Every team must have a single reason why it is doing what it is doing. Every member of the team must share that ideal. This is the purpose of the team. Myles Monroe in his famous quote said, “If the purpose of a thing is not known, abuse is inevitable.” This applies to teams when team players do know the purpose of the team.

When a common purpose is recognized and understood, a team’s effectiveness sky rockets. It is a sorry thing to see a team with differing purposes. Any sports team with such would easily fall to a team with a better sense of it’s purpose. This applies to businesses, families, classes and the like.

A common purpose is built, first, by clearly communicating it. Indeed a team leader should be able to articulate the intent behind his or her team but beyond one-way articulation, team players should be able to understand and produce performance that clearly shows their understanding. Only when this happens can we say communication has occurred.

Also, team players should be willing to submit every action to the purpose of the team. Contradictory actions that obviously create a division in the team should not be entertained.

The unifying factor of mutual accountability: who is responsible? Whose fault is it? Who is to give account? These are questions all groups have to answer at one point or the other and therein lie where many groups fall short of being teams. Note this; in a team, nobody is accountable, everybody is. It is nobody’s fault; everybody is at fault. Nobody is responsible, it is everyone’s responsibility. The moment this is missed, the cords that bind team play are broken. The whole point behind team-play is mutual accountability. This is when every team player feels as much responsible for the team and its progress as everyone else. You don’t get this in hierarchy where responsibility clearly lies on the people at the helm of command. Every player in team-play learns responsibility. When one falls, all fall. When one is up, all are up, none is left behind. Accountability is demanded from every player at all times. 

Teamwork: The Assurance for Your Success

Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their labor: ...though one may be overpowered, two can defend themselves. A strand of three cords is not easily broken. - Solomon (Third king of Israel)

I will be writing a series of articles on the need for teamwork in your success journey. This is important because ability, strength, capacity, and eventually success is multiplied geometrically when you work with a team as opposed to individuality.

Not many folks think they need help. I am sure you have heard the phrase, “self-made millionaire”, used to describe people that supposedly “made” themselves whatever they became.

Learn to work as a TEAM

Nothing can be further from the truth. None of us is completely self-made. I admit that there is a lot in your success journey that you and you alone can make happen but to say that everything you have become, you self actualized is to over state it.

Every one of us is summary of many other peoples contribution. Someone breastfed and catered for and educated you else you would not have even had a chance in life!

The fact that you need people does not make you a weakling. Interestingly it's an assurance for your strength. Every individual has personal limitations. There are things in your person that serve as limiting factors to your progress. They may have arisen from family and environmental background, societal influence, peer group associations or the media. Irrespective of the source, the main issue is that they exist and a denial of their existence does not eliminate their presence. The only way you can break personal barriers and limitations is by teamwork. You need someone who will walk and work with you, pat you on the back when things go well, encourage you when things don’t go as expected, rebuke you when you do wrong - If you are a person that cannot handle a rebuke but take offence at every instance of it, then your progress will be rather slow.

You need people with the ability of polishing your ideas and expanding them. King Solomon once noted that, “Just as iron sharpens iron, friends sharpen the minds of each other.” The greatest minds need sharpening. Irrespective of how revolutionary your ideas might seem to be, you need people who will do some polishing on them.

Timing - Your Key to Success

He (God) has made everything beautiful in it's own time. - Solomon (the king)

          It is easy to feel insufficient and dissatisfied with our states at every phase. It is common among many young folks to consider where they are in their success chart and feel they are far from attainment.

         This is more so because we are not familiar with the path of our success journey. This way we will not be able to know how much of our peculiar success-journey we have covered.  

         In addition many of us easily compare ourselves with others. When we compare ourselves with people we place ourselves upon uneven scales and we never become all that we can be. Rather, we are left with a sense of inner insufficiency. Making matters worse is the fact that many young people compare themselves with people that are much more advanced in age and advancement than they. This will simply make you less than you should be.

          It is important we note that there are some platforms of success we may never experience irrespective of how we desire to because of one basic thing - Timing. Some things will not come to us simply because it isn't yet time for them to. It is God that grants us the things we desire and just the way no reasonable father will give his car keys to his ten year old, God does not grant desires to immature children.

Every father knows that keeping a child from the car keys isn't denial. In time, the child will grow mature enough to drive. All that matters is time. Joseph Onilede once noted that, “The difference between a ripe fruit and an unripe one is time.” Indeed with time all things fall in place.

         Wait for the right time. The things you desire are not impossible. It may just not be the right time to attain them has not yet come. When the time does come – and it will – the beauty that comes with attainment brightens it and makes it an envious thing in the eyes of many. Discover and wait for the right time to attain every aspect of your goal. 

Ambition and Success

Intelligence without ambition is a bird without wings. - Salvador Dali

Do you want to build success one ambition at a time?

Determine exactly what you want: Because people do not know what exactly they want, they move from one thing to the other. Every person at one point or the other in life will have to answer this question; what do you want to become? Yours might not come that way but it will come in some other form. The important thing is not how the question comes to you but what your answer is.

Work with your strengths: make sure your ambition(s) align perfectly with your inherent strengths. This will first require knowledge of your strengths. Working out your ambitions based on this knowledge will equip you with the necessary tools required for the achievement of your goal. It will also make your goal fun to accomplish.

Break it down into smaller bits: one reason why we fail in life is because we are so troubled with the pursuit and immediate accomplishment of great ambitions. Every meal is easier to finish when eaten one bite at a time. Many things are impossible to accomplish with one swoop. Your ambition is one of those things. There is no need to fret though. Simply break it down into smaller, simpler bits. Every big thing is made up of smaller things. Armies invade lands not individually but in battalions. They will be an easy crush individually. Picture your ambition as a battalion set for you to conquer but put in mind that every battalion is made up of individuals. You may not be able to handle the battalion but I am sure individual soldiers will be easier for you to handle. The smaller you break down your ambition, the easier it is to crush.

Do not make it all about you: Any ambition that will require the downfall of another who is already doing very well is not a worthy one. Selfish ambitions will lead to envy, greed and wickedness. The wrong ambition or the wrong path taken to achieve a right ambition has made emotionless monsters out of men in time past. Albert Einstein said, “Nothing truly valuable arises from ambition or from a mere sense of duty; it stems rather from love and devotion towards men and towards objective things.”

Creativity NOW!

           Imagination is everything. It is the preview of life's coming attractions. - Albert Einstein 

 Generate curiosity: the first thing needed is curiosity. Curiosity stems from creativity. Curiosity and creativity are linked by a two-way arrow. The process for developing either can go in both directions. You can use your curiosity, which is actually easier to form, to develop creativity. This can most easily be done by asking probing questions. If used appropriately Questions open up things that ordinarily will remain closed. Some questioning tips are:

Tip no. 1: Ask yourself about changes. E.g. What would taste better if it were less sweet? How can I make it sweeter? Tip no. 2: Ask yourself questions with lots of answers. E.g. What are some of the uses of air?

             Think deep: Creativity never occurs in the shallow regions of the mind but rather in its deep recesses. Treasure is never found floating on the surface of ocean waters but rather deep down at the bottom of it where only the resilient get to.

              Form a picture of what you want: You must see it in your mind’s eye. Anything can be seen in the mind. Very few people know that. You see, you have two pairs of eyes. The first is the outward eye, which is visible to everyone. Your outward eye sees only the things that are in the physical environment. The inner pair sees beyond. It sees what cannot be seen from the physical environment. Both pairs work together in feeding your mind with information. The outer eyes feed your mind with information that has defined boundaries. However, this is not so with the inner pair. The inner pair feeds your mind with boundless information. With your inner eyes, sight has no boundaries unless the ones you map out for it. You can create the picture of anything you desire to see or have physically.

               Do not let your environment restrict you: have a mindset that what you see is never what you get. Anything can become anything. A boulder can be a statue, a black stone can be coal, a tree can be paper, that problem you are looking at can be a business. Do not despise all seemingly worthless things. They are the parents of all worthwhile things.

Starting Where You are With What You Have

So the Lord said to him, "What is that in your hand?" He said, "A rod." And He said, "Cast it on the ground." So he cast it on the ground, and it became a serpent; and Moses fled from it. – Moses (at the burning bush)

     Take a survey, get on your street today and ask every willing volunteer the following questions; What to you dream to become? Why have you not become that thing? Most assuredly you will receive answers like I do not have the money, or It will not work in this place, or I do not have anybody to help me. These responses people have used to excuse their stagnancy and ineffectiveness. I dare say that all these answers are baskets used to carry water.

     We must all get our minds to understand that to succeed in any worthy venture you must start where you are. You do not need to go anywhere else. Take the first step where you are! Success begins at home. The thought that you must change location has made inactive cowards of us. Many think they would be successes if they were in the United States of America or some other “ideal” country their minds have built but they are grossly misled. Admittedly there are countries that have better economies and hence opportunities but no country assures a failure of success. Changing the location of a lizard does not change it to an alligator. In fact, changing the skin of a lizard to that of an alligator does not make it one, its “lizard-ness” is in its mind.

     Folks may then say, I will not change location but I still don’t have what it takes to achieve my dreams. True you may not have all it takes but you do have something. Everybody has something. It may be knowledge, wisdom, a family, a healthy body, time or beauty – doesn’t matter what. What is important is that you can use your limited resource to ignite the flames of your dream. God asked Moses a profound question: “What is in your hands?” and he said, “A staff.” How useful is a staff in fighting for freedom from the clutches of the most powerful living man of their time? Certainly it was little indeed. It was just that little staff that God needed to liberate Israel from bondage. That “thing” in your hands is more important than the combined power of all other resources you don’t have. 

             

Start where you are and with what you have. You may not be in the best location in the world, you may not have all the needed resources for you success journey, but to begin you don’t need the best location or all the resources. 

Idle Hands

And about the eleventh hour he went out and found others standing idle, and said to them, Why do you stand here all day idle? - Jesus (The Christ).

Picture From Idle Traveller

Unemployment is an ailment eating deep into my generation. In many African countries the figures are staggering, often reaching unimaginable points like 80% of all youths. For a long time it was seen as a problem of the “developing world” and though we still top the chats, several countries in Europe are fast approaching.

It is common to get the answer, “I am doing nothing”, to the question, “What are you doing now?” from young folks. It is this response that disturbs me. While governments are truly responsible for creating enabling environments for young workers, it does not excuse idleness. I believe that unemployment is a mirage. It only exists in your experience if you permit it to. If you choose to you can take yourself out of that group. All you need to do is occupy yourself with worthy work. It is said that, “The idle mind is the devils workshop”. This is so because the idle mind assuredly conjures up mischievous deeds.

This need not be so. Our young minds do not have to submit to idleness. At every point in time you can occupy yourself with a new skill. There are numerous artisans that will permit you to understudy them if you would offer voluntary service. What is wrong in learning to cook, or bake, or sew, or farm? You give them your time and strength and they give you a new skill that you could use in life.

Devote yourself to continuous learning. Never get to the point that you stop learning. When you do not learn you do not grow. So, read, listen to professionals, do cheap research, improve yourself. Take advantage of this period of your life to become a better person.

Take your focus away from monetary rewards. Money has become a big problem to the young generation. Our eyes seem fixed on becoming wealthy in an hour. Process is now a forgotten word in success dictionary but this should not be so. It is said that, “He that is in a haste to get rich will not be considered innocent”. 

Learning to Focus

Concentrate all your thoughts upon the work at hand. The sun's rays do not burn until brought to a focus. - Alexander Graham Bell

The Sun: The Sun is the most prominent feature in our solar system and nature’s energy warehouse. It contains approximately 98% of the total solar system mass. Its disk can conveniently accommodate one hundred and nine Earths. Its interior can hold over 1.3 million Earths. The Sun's outer visible layer is called the photosphere and has a temperature of 6,000°C. This layer has a mottled appearance due to the turbulent eruptions of energy at the surface.

It is oddly funny that with all these known about the sun, humans, infinitesimal creatures in comparison to it, enjoy bare-chested tanning under the sun’s intensity daily.

The Laser: The laser is used for surgeries, joining of objects and in some intensity can cut through steel. At best, the laser emits energy so small, it would not stand anywhere close to the sun.

One thing makes the laser able to cut through steel while the sun is used for tanning - FOCUS. The principle behind the laser is simple. All its rays are focused on one spot while the sun disperses its rays to a zillion different directions.

Focus is a major virtue of all high-achievers. Simply put, it is the ability to stay on one thing at a time until it is completed.

Focused living is the crux of successful living. We need to be focused in every aspect of our lives. Anyone that does everything at the same time actually does nothing. Want to be focused?

Know your areas of interest: There are many things you could do but I am pretty sure there are only a few you will be interested in at any given time. Discover your areas of interest and focus on them.

Prioritize: On a piece of paper, write down all the things you need to accomplish. Attach numbers to them in accordance to their relevance. Pick the most relevant and work on it immediately. Work your way down the list.

Don’t leave anything unfinished: Each item selected on your list should be completed before you move on. Never leave a work unfinished. Unfinished work is no better than untouched work. If a task can be finished once, make sure you don’t do it twice. 

IGNORANCE - The Success Killer!

     If you think education is expensive, try ignorance. - Derek Bok (Former President of Harvard University)

     To know or not to know. It is amazing the number of ignorant people in our society. Large segment of the population do not know and funny do not know that they do not know. It almost seems like they feel ignorance is bliss and if that is the case they certainly are hanging on error. Have you heard it said that what you do not know cannot hurt you? Well there isn't a bigger lie than that! Indeed, what you do not know can kill you!
     My work colleague died some time back because she used medication that killed a baby in her. You see, she was pregnant but neither she nor her husband knew about it so she used strong malaria medication to counter to the morning sickness she felt. Ignorance is a killer, a certain killer.
     But for me I do not think ignorance is the biggest problem. The bigger problem is the lack of desire to learn. An ignorant man with the desire to learn is a patient with a properly diagnosed sickness. All he needs is right medication to be well. A majority of young folks have a lackadaisical attitude toward learning. Look around you and you will realize that it is certainly true.
     If you would succeed in life you must be able and willing to learn.
     Interestingly, it is easy to learn. Never in human history has information, which leads to knowledge, been more readily available than today. Researchers and authors willingly share loads of information on every area of development. Plunge into this sea of information and improve yourself. Read books. Take positive advantage of the internet. The information you receive will bring knowledge to you and the knowledge will transform you into another being.
     When you begin your learning journey you will realize that some of the things you thought you knew were an illusion and that you did not know as much as you thought you did. Hence, you will unlearn and begin to properly relearn. Martin Luther King (Jnr) once said, "Nothing in the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity." Decide today not to be sincerely ignorant nor conscientiously stupid.